Tonight, the Phillies have a chance to do something they haven’t done in nearly a month’s time–win three games in a row.

On the bump for the Phils will be the red hot Cole Hamels, who has dazzled since the All Star Break, posting a 2.30 ERA over 43 IP. That mark gives him the 11th best ERA in the NL since the second half started.

One of the pitchers ahead of Hamels in ERA since the All Star break is the man he’ll be facing tonight–Wade Miley. Miley ranks 10th in the NL in post-All Star ERA, posting a 2.25 mark.

Hamels lost to the D-Backs when he faced them earlier this year, though he only allowed two runs over six innings. In that game, he uncharacteristically walked five batters. For his career, he’s gone 4-2 against Arizona with a 3.42 ERA.

Miley has not faced the Phils this year, though he did shut them down for six innings in his lone career start against them.

The Phils welcome a visitor from the American Southwest this weekend. When it comes to southwestern brews, California’s Sierra Nevada produces some of the best. This pale ale selection is highly-rated, with a prominent bitterness that doesn’t overpower the malty taste. There is a citrus undertone that finishes off this smooth and delicious sip. –By RD

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62 Comments

Seems like red hot is a little overstating Hamels work over recent weeks. I’m not quibbling with complimenting his results, guess it depends on how you use the language.

Truthfully, as we rolled through June, well, not we…only rolling Cole was doing was getting rolled over,which is an exaggeration, but he wasn’t making no all-star team….I wondrered how he’d have pitched if he pitched in the all-star game. He had his own reasons for a less than stellar first half, but I figured with a good team behind him, he’d pitch well. We’ll never know.

This should be a good, competitive game tonight. Should be a decent series.

I could see the Phils getting swept, but don’t think it’ll happen. I could see them winning 2, but don’t expect it. If they do, it’s a nice stretch to end the homestand and see what they do in Sandberg’s first road games. My guess is they come up short 2 out of 3.

The guy who ran a blog from a bygone era used to intro each series with 3 questions. If I were to apply that theme to this matchup, it’d look like this…

1/ What does Ethan Martin have in store for an encore performance?

2/ How will Jimmy bounce back after being given a “night off for the 2nd time in 5 days after better work at the plate the last 2-3 games. Course I keep forgetting that each of the last 5 years, Jimmy was done all 48 times he mired his streaky behind in a slump. Not that he’s had a good year/

Being as this is retro night, it’s right and proper to take a look at an ex-Phillie, who, with the magic of time, makes you wonder whatever happened to him.

Ender Incarte.

Buried again after actually making the Phils roster on OD, sponsored by terrific speed, and capable defense. The Phils eventually returned him to the Dbacks where he’s had a pretty nice AA year, including 41 steals. Might still have a decent career including at least some big league time.

When the basis of tonight’s unis came out in I guess it was when the Vet opened, ’71, the P wasn’t exactly greeted warmly. General concensus was they looked like softball unis. Funny how now, allthese years later, that style of uni is much better received. All I know is I see the P, and softball or not, I see a lot of guys who gave me memories forever, and that was good enough for me for identification purposes.

Any player can lose one in the lights, or twilight, even though I bet some went a career and never did, so we can pretty much look past Dom’s snafu. But he’s not having an acceptable defensive stretch of late. Matter of fact, on the whole, certainly arm strength aside, he’s spent the last couple weeks validating Keith Law’s claim earlier this year (maybe spring) that he’ still “well below average” defensively. I thought that was a real overstatement, but we’re looking to see better play than recently. And the thought was Ruf could be an adventure in right.

I’ll be interested to see where, if he uses Rollins at all he uses him after passing on him as a pinch hitter letting McDonald hit with 2 outs to end the inning with them loaded. Maybe a little early to get down to 1 shortstop.

He’s still young, 21, but I see where Jonathan Singleton hasn’t exactly bounced back from his suspension. Prorated 160 K’s, and he’s walked enough to get his OBP up in the .330’s, but he’s not having a very powerful year at Ok City. I assume his future is still bright.

Unfortunately, there’ve been stretches where you would love seeing Heath Bell come in, but he’s pitched pretty well of late. Or hitters have been of a cooperative spirit. He’s been used in various situations.

The 1 game that sticks out on the OOT scoreboard is the O’s hosting the A’s. Slump ridden of late, the O’s are not capitalizing on the hot Yanks loss of a Kuroda start after sweeping Toronto by losing to the A;s 7-6, T7.

It’s the way they are lsing. Six runs on 4 hits. Chris Davis and Adam Jones can’t get it done themselves.

first time a hitter’s ever been up in that situation and didn’t hit a foul ball. Ironically, a pitch that close, you often TRY to foul it off. Tough pitch to take results in a GW rbi. On the road to 2 of 3 for a good finish to the home stand. Now if they can just get it done.

I think I finally figured this thing out. We might be seeing in Ryne Sanberg what we would have seen had Bobby Wine ever been given a chance to manage the Phils. What a nice thought to put a wrap on another night of baseball. I would hope RAJ has positive memories of Wino. A Mauch disciple, who I’d like to think wouldn’t have overmanaged, Not quite comparable to Ryno as a player. We go from The Plays of Wine and Rojas, to The Thoughts about Wino and Ryno.

I hope Phillies management is learning that winning games pleases fans more than keeping beloved players in town just because some fans have their jersey and are emotionally attached to a player. Even if it means a weaker team.

Yes, Andrew, I’ve heard it said in the past week — I was just wondering about specific examples. I am often suspicious of statements about “playing hard”, “hustle”, “enthusiasm”, etc., for two reasons:

1) The main reason the Phillies won tonight was the pitching. If the 4th run in the 9th turned a 6-3 deficit to a 6-4 loss, I wonder if it would still feel like they played hard.

2) We often confuse playing hard with hitting well. Or not even hitting well, but having the good fortune of a weak grounder being just out of reach or a blooper falling in for a key hit.

I think what G7 means is they are winning games in the ninth. The team post Charlie seems to be a little better at winning with the same guys = playing harder.This may all go away but for right now I understand what G7’s point is.

No. Not since the AS Break. Certainly that’s all “fresh” in our minds. But that stretch of terrible games shouldn’t define Charlie as a bad manager. I mean, how do you explain the stretch right before the AS Break where they went on that run, won all those series against good teams and climbed back into the race?

Also… all these walk-offs this week…while nice….doesn’t mean that Ryne Sandberg is suddenly some sort of genius. I will argue that they very well could have won those games in that fashion if Charlie was still at the helm.

I could also argue that Charlie had quit on this team, and the players had as well..Charlie always seemed to need really good players in order to succeed..there are other ways to win games if you actually manage the game and the players.

You DO need really good players in order to succeed. Right now…the Phillies are a bad team. But even bad teams have games or stretches of games where they play well. And in the case of this recent mini good stretch they caught a few breaks as well. Instead of winning 5 of their last 6 they very easily could have LOST 5 of 6.

That was a cool last at bat last night for Chase. The normal predecessor for a hitter stepping up is they’ll avoid an out about 33 out of 100 times. But a player of Ut’s ilk? In that situation, confidence wise, maybe he’s gonna get the job done more like 5, hell, maybe 6 times out of 10. Do I hear 7?

So did Kirk Gibson do the right thing yanking Bell for lefty de la Rosa?? Put it this way. You’ll take Utley over Heath Bell all day long. And as for Joe Thatcher, a lefty pen deadline buy, he’s had 11 of the last 19 lefties he faced get on base. And the Dbacks are like 3-13 at the Bank since ’07, Altered roster or not, horror houses have a way of sucking you into long term leases. It’s so easy to view it from the other side, where the Phils have lost countless games in exact similar circumstances, and so many wrong people get blamed. Maybe Asche and Jimmy Offense are underpublicized heroes for setting the stage for the destined loser getting sucked back in, although that avoids a lot of contributors toward getting there.

Ken,
Just based on his lack if ability to set pace, and the way he fails to adjust to the line-up after the first time through. I’d love to see him become a solid starter, but initially he is showing the signs that relief might be better suited to him, as he posses good stuff and throws hard. Just pure speculation in the end though. : )

The way I figure it is this. While he’s 24, which isn’t exactly young, he’s still developing. He’s got a real good curve, and throws hard. So the potential is there. But he’s got to improve his command. I don’t see much of anything with his current demonstrated ability that makes him anything more than an adventure in the pen like we’ve seen so much of.

Another year in the minors, make a judgement then. Maybe his future is as a reliever, but even that’s off an improvement.

I can’t get over that Ruf rip. There’s more reason to believe Bernidina slams another than to think Ruf would go deep. Veteran pitcher, knows the guy has power, and yet, kaboom. Heath Bell is just incredible.

Tomorrow is so meaningless at this point, but this extra innings leans nice to Arizona with the pens lining up. First, Bell’s not going 3 in a row, huge advantage, them. Paps (I don’t thinbk) will pitch), I don’t think BJ will, they gotta get a good start by Cloyd, especially against Corbin.

So in a way, the Phils are kinda playing for the series right here.

But I wouldn’t assume they’ll lose tomorrow. I was, but what do I look, stupid?

I think it’s safe to saw Wells is big time pressing, anxious to fit in after SO much bouncing arouynd. And it’s a shame because it’d be nice to see him contribute, to fit in, and it’s not like he’s got massive ability to offset that extra difficulty. Tough situation to be in.

Geez, if they use Cloyd, could Doc pitch here? That’d be interesting. Well, I hope it would be.